Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

I don't think anything has changed there. We're in the same situation of extended brinksmanship that we've been in for the past 18 months. Fury can make big bank a lot more easily than Usyk can and I think sooner or later Usyk will cave and accept the Fury camp's terms.

 

IBF have ordered Opetaia to defend against Briedis. Not a big fan of rematches but that fight was good enough that I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

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Hopefully if this one fails to get made like the others, they at least pull out before the day of the ****ing purse bids. Too much of Opetaia's time has been eaten up by that kind of garbage.

 

On the undercard of Rodriguez vs Lopez I saw that Marcus Browne will face Adrian Taylor, the guy who beat Apochi last year. Funny little fight.

 

Nice!

One way to become great is for two guys to have a great series, and the first was dynamite!

 

Strange for a USA fighter to move to the Cruiserweight division, though. Not many fights available there. Richard Rivera (who fought Badou Jack as a CW on Joshua v. Usyk 2) and Najee Lopez (a prospect that I wrote about on this thread last year) recently moved to LHW from CW citing a lack of available CW fights in N. America.

I still can't find any details about Taylor's surprise SD win over Apochi. That result seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

This is a good loser goes home fight

I don't see Washington as much of a threat. He's only ever flattened Helenius, I don't think he puts a dent on chisora

 

Washington can be OK (at least until he gasses) when he's facing another boxer-puncher or a straightforward pressure fighter - but neither of those describe Chisora. IMO, he catches Washington cold very quickly in this fight.

 

Richard Torrez (5-0, 5 KOs) takes on Willie Jake Jr. (11-3-2, 3KOs) this Saturday.

 

Some news concerning a USA CW prospect.

Tristan Kalkreuth scored a 2nd round TKO of Joe Jones in a CW contest on the undercard of the Schofield v. Rhodes fight on July 8th. Kalkreuth dropped Jones three times in the 2nd round before Jones' corner signaled the ref to stop the contest.

Jones is an absolutely hapless fighter, defensively, but he does have some power and is a fast starter. I saw him almost stop Richard Rivera in the opening frame of their fight several years ago and, of course, he absolutely flattened Junior Wright when the two fought on the undercard of Hunter v. Forrest. So this fight was not 100% risk-free.

Kalkreuth was a very highly-touted prospect from a few years ago and was quickly signed by Golden Boy. This all seemed to come unglued a couple years ago when he dropped a decision to journeyman Demetrius Bank. It later transpired that Kalkreuth had injured his right shoulder early in the fight and he required surgery to fix it. He's only 21 years-old and hopefully this victory means he can start to fulfill his potential. Unfortunately, he will struggle to find good CW fights in North America.

 

Torrez was supposed to fight Jake Jr in February - but he hurt his hand.

Jake Jr is a step up from Torrez Jr's earlier opponents - but he's not a threat. I've seen Jake Jr fight a couple of times and he definitely seems to want to be in his opponent's grill...almost swarmer-style. He was...unsuccessful...using that style against Frank Sanchez. I don't think that's the ideal style to use against a fighter like Richard Torrez Jr and, while we're at it, it's probably not a good style at all for a 40 year-old fighter period!

So Jake Jr should be stopped within a couple of rounds. But he *might* give us a clue as to how easy it is or isn't to touch Torrez Jr in a phone booth.

 

Kevin Blue Johnson is now Kevin Vladimirovich and a Russian citizen.

 

One prospect who might be worth keeping an eye on is Alexis Barrière from Canada. He's 28 years old, stands 6'4 and has amassed a 10-0 (8 KOs) record. While most of those wins are over nobodies, he has logged 1st round stoppage victories over Adam Braidwood and Mike Marshall in the past 9 months. Most recently he was in Hrgovic's camp to prepare Filip for tomorrow's fight with Demsey McKean.

Hopefully he can get some nice step-up fights in the next year or so.

 

Doesn't seem all that surprising. I can't even remember the last time Kingpin fought in North America.

 

Marcus Browne (25-2, 16 KO) made his debut at CW a successful one as he cruised to a sweep of the cards in his ten round fight vs. Adrian Taylor (13-2-1, 5 KO) on the undercard of Rodriguez v. Lopez. Browne never looked like getting Taylor out of there but simply outboxed him from start to finish.

I'd expect Browne to pop up on a televised or PPV card at that weight shortly.

 

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